"working on a new song called 'glissandra'...it's pretty, and loud. pretty and loud always works for me..." -BC, twitter 2011/05/23

"Honestly, this is another song that happened when we were sitting around in the studio, waiting for something to get fixed. I started playing the riff, and we were all thinking, Oh, that's good. I went home and wrote the melody and some of the lyrical content. The next day, I played it for Nicole on acoustic guitar, and she almost started crying. She said, 'God, that's so beautiful.' And I was like, 'OK -- that works for me!' [laughs] Heartache never gets old.

"Within a few days we were tracking it. Somewhere along the way, I bought one of those old guitar synths -- I think it's the first Roland one. It's the one where you don't need the special pickup; you just plug straight in. It tracks semi-poorly, but that's part of the sound. Also, I'm using this Boss pedal where it's kind of like a whammy bar. So that's me going 'errr-weeeer-weeeeer' with the pedal. It's one of my favorite sounds on the record. The whole band loves shoegazer music, particularly from the late '80s and early '90s, the UK stuff. Ride, Slow Dive, Swervedriver -- we've toured with some of those bands. So it's trying to find a combination of an underneath club feel and shoegazer on top." -BC, MusicRadar interview, 2012/06/13

Fallen lovers and useless friends
Must you glare?
As life uncovers our unions pulled threadbare
Pleasure taps it's vein

I've been hungry and I've been full
And I've been sated some more
I used to know what for
I used to know
All hours look the same
I used to know

What a wish was for
Magic plumes my soul
Pyramids for sale
Full moons on the rail
Pipers play for dawn

Hypnotized, unwind these lines around my head
What's left for me to leave for you unsaid?
You can't fill with dread

I've been hungry and I've been full
Molten at the spoke
I used to know what for
I used to know what for

La-la-la-la-la...
A pluck on spiders strings
Gutters form the stars
Children cry out proud
As embers blast my heart
Broken where I'd stop

I used to know
What a wish was for
I used to know
What a wish was for

Stolen like a lark
Flicks on tender wrists
Abuse the modern mind
Crush on what you'll find
La-la-la-la-la...

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Billy Corgan

The title seems to be a typical "Billy pun", considering that the main lead riff (and most of the other guitar tracks) consists entirely of slides, known musically as glissando.